dancing horses

dancing horses

Friday, December 16, 2016

Blog Hop: Christmas Ornaments and a Poll

Let me start by thanking everyone for their kindness on my last post. I truly appreciated each and every one of them. Taking that day was good for me. I woke up on Thursday feeling much better. Writing has always been cathartic for me and it does help. 


Buckle up- I think it's going to be a wild winter. Right now it's -15 celsius with the windchill making it -30. We rarely get this level of cold here and never in December. It's going to +`12 on Sunday. But since Global Warming is being denied by political leaders I guess it can't really be happening. 

Fortunately I don't have to work today so I've decided to hide inside. I will bake cookies later and wrap some Christmas presents. This makes blog fodder hard to find but fortunately Viva Carlos is hosting a blog hop asking us to share our Christmas Ornaments. 

One thing I didn't tell you about my location is that there are lot of Christmas tree farms here. The trees grown here are sent all over the world- including the U.S. If you live on the east coast you might actually have a tree that was grown here. This makes Christmas trees pretty inexpensive.
Our tree this year- we paid more than usual- $30
Of course I have horse Christmas ornaments. I took a few photos of them to share but I have a lot more than I'm putting here:
My little grey pony Breyer ornament

did you notice this was not a horse? I like to buy an ornament when I travel.
that way when I hang it on a tree I remember where I've been. This is from Australia: a Kookaburra. 

Add caption


I bought this as local art gallery- there's a lot of folk artists here and I loved this workhorse. 


Now for the poll. This has been an a bit of an internal struggle for me whether to change my header photo. Part of it is that because it's of Steele, but mostly it's because I loved the photo. So I combined my two favourite photos of my two dancing horses. I wanted an opinion whether I should keep it. If you have a third option put a comment on my blog. 

34 comments:

  1. I honestly love both pictures, but I think it's a bit more striking as it was originally. The picture of Steele is just breathtaking. The Carmen picture just seems to detract from it, but is also gorgeous in it's own right so I dunno...

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    1. You sound like me, LOL! I have been playing with it and will try a different one...

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  2. I vote for the new header. Both Carmen and Steele are dancing horses. I love your ornaments. I have a mix of ornaments that are from travels, from my mother (she loved to give me gifts of ornaments) and ones the kids made. Its not the most cohesive tree but its full of memories. Like yours.

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    1. I love an eclectic tree! I find them more interesting. Like you I have ornaments that my mother gave me (and even some she made).

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  3. I'm glad you are feeling better. I was concerned that you are still having that fear, and that it worsens on the anniversary. Nice ornaments. I saw a news clip of some place where some guy was trying to charge $1,000 for a cut Christmas tree, citing drought and fires as the culprit for the rise in price. Hopefully, no one fell for it. I like the new header. Change is good. Although, I've been really bad about changing anything on most of my social media sites.

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    1. Oh I still have my 'issues' but I'm learning to deal. And who would pay 1k for a tree???!

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  4. Those ornaments are beautiful! Don't forget to add your link in the link up!

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  5. If you want to keep both, I'd be happy to combine them into a new header shot for you. Let me know :D xianleigh (at) earthlink (dot) net

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    1. email sent along with my new idea! thank you.

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    2. Hey Teresa -
      No email yet - not even bounced into junk. Try again?

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  6. I love both pictures, I say keep both of them. They are a best representation of your journey, where you were and where you are now. I like your tree!

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  7. I have the second to the last ornament! Personally, I like the two pictures of your horses. Part of your journey with Carmen is linked to Steele. I like to see and remember the connection, but a blog is so personal--there may be other ways to do the same thing.

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  8. Love the ornaments. I think the header having 2 pictures is great.

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  9. Your blog, your header was my first thought. Personally, I'd keep them both, as the both have meaning to you.

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    1. Absolutely- I just like to gather thoughts and opinions.

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  10. I love your ornaments. I have a lot or different ones too full of memories.

    About the header. I think that's a personal decision that you have to make. I like both pictures. Steele's picture is beautiful, he does look like a dancing horse. And Carmen is gorgeous too. Maybe you could make a montage and include Irish too. I never stick with one picture on my blog but change it for each post. Then again I don't post as much as I used to so that might be hard since you do post regularly. So I guess to sum it up just do what you want. I don't think you can make a wrong decision.

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  11. I love both pictures :)

    Can I suggest that you crop them so that the ground-lines match up though? If you did this and put Carmen on the left, then the slope in Steele's photo would run into the slope in Carmen's photo... if that makes sense? Just a suggestion :)

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    1. I agree with your thoughts and have played some more

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  12. I love your ornaments! I like either header :)

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  13. but didn't you hear? It's so cold out that it global "warming" can't be real...

    Yes, people have actually told me that.

    Beautiful ornaments!! I need to get mine from my parents so that I can put up a real tree next year. This year I have baby ornaments on a little potted spruce tree which is still pretty cute but not quite the same.

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    1. I am amazed how people will believe the most ludicrous of conspiracy theories but not actual science.....

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  14. Last night got down to -40* here.... so thankful that Mr Shoes built shelters for all the critters on the place! (Doesn't EVERYone love to talk about their weather? I think it gives us a little snapshot on what is happening where our blogger friends live, which I like a lot.)
    What if global warming is less about what humans have done & more like a natural cycle of our planet that plays out slowly over thousands of years? We wouldn't be able to prove the theory that it is a natural phenomenon because it will have been happening for many, many centuries before recorded history. I saw a documentary about this topic that seemed very possible - food for thought.

    Gorgeous tree for $30! We used to buy trees when the kids were young & the boy scouts were the receiving charity. Since moving out into the bush years ago, Mr Shoes has actually chosen in advance the Christmas trees for the rest of our lives.
    You think I'm kidding, but about 50 evergreens scattered around the property, flagged with survey tape, mowed around, limbs trimmed & trained, would say different. ;-)
    This years' tree, however, will now be next years' tree - this year we are celebrating what we're calling the Un-Christmas. Our children will both be away, Mr Shoes is working straight through the holidays (no rest for essential services) & so that takes away most of my incentive to 'do it up right'. Another reason to keep it low key here is that my BFF (whose daughter Kaydance was abducted by T's legal wife in May 2016) is not in a place to feel in a celebratory mood when she has just missed her daughter's 2nd birthday & now will miss her second Christmas as well - it's heart-breaking.

    BUT I actually LOVE this post, love ornaments & I've been replacing all my kid-friendly ones with very fancy ones I can't afford before Christmas; I usually buy one or 2 really lovely ornaments after Christmas on clearance.

    I would be very excited to see what CFS can come up with for you since she's offered - you have a lot of lovely pics of both your beautiful Dancers. Whatever you decide will be the right decision, & it will be beautiful.

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    1. We've talked about doing our own trees but we have enough work to do and I like to support the local economy. If we lived outside of Christmas tree country it would be different. I am so sorry about your friend's daughter. I can't imagine what she's going through. I hope that you enjoy the low-key holidays. I am a firm believer that whatever someone wants to do is fine.

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  15. There is a horse missing from your header!

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  16. I love the header you have now :) It incorporates two very special horses.

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